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Feds fight cyberattacks on public image

Cyberassaults on federal authorities are garnering increased attention due to publicity-seeking hackers, but those authorities say other, perhaps more harmful, intrusions are going undetected.

Hacker activist group Anonymous on Friday claimed to have intercepted a phone call between the FBI and U.K. Metropolitan Police Service agents about investigations into fellow hacktivists. On Jan. 19, the same anti-government protesters took credit for bombarding Justice.gov and FBI.gov with site-crippling traffic after U.S. authorities shuttered piracy file-sharing website Megaupload.

The cooperative then boasted on message boards that U.S. intelligence officials told Congress last week that hackers will surpass terrorists as the greatest menace to society. The FBI and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence were referring to nations and nongovernment groups, perhaps hacktivists, with computer programs capable of disrupting not only websites, but also systems that operate power grids and other critical infrastructure.

“We assess that many intrusions into U.S. networks are not being detected,” DNI James Clapper testified on Jan. 31, regarding cyberespionage. “Although most activity detected to date has been targeted against unclassified networks connected to the Internet, foreign cyber actors have also begun targeting classified networks.”